News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-24
THE SUNDAY PULPIT,
DISCOURSE BY THE REV. DIR, TAI,
MAGE.
Subject: Are We DeIuded?"

HUer. Ezekiel Xxx, 81.
Two modes of divination by which Il
sing OF Babylon proposed to find out IL
VIII Oh God. He took bundle of arrow
PuL Ghem together, mixed them up, the
pulled forth one, and by the inscription 9
n III decided what city he should first assault
linen an animal was slain, and by the lightt
or darker color of the liver, the brighter {
CAREER Ik prospect of success was inferred. Tha
Is the meaning of the text: HE made h
arrows bright, he consulted with images,
looked in the liver
Stupid delusion And vet all the ages hav
neen filled with decisions. 1t seems as if tn
world loves to be hoodwinked, the delusio
OF the text only specimen of vast humble
OF deceits practiced upon the human race. /
Gne latter part of the last century Johann
Southcote came forth, pretending to hav
9lVine power, made prophecies, had chapel
putt in her honor, and one hundre
disciples came forth to follow her. Abou
nve years before the birth of Christ
Apollonius was born, and he came forth
and after five years being SPECIFICS accord
ing to the tradition, he healed the sick an,
raised the dead and preached virtue, and
according to the myth, having deceased, wa
brought TO resurrection
The Delphic Oracle deceived vast multi
tudeS OF people; the PythonesS seated in thu
Temple of Apollo uttering a crazy jargor
rom which the people guessed their indi
Yldual or national fortunes or misfortunes
The utterances were of such a nature thai
you could read them any way you wanted
to read them. A General going forth to bat
tie, consulted the Delphic Oracle, and be
wanted to find out whether he was going Il
be safe in the battle, or killed in the battle
and the answer came forth from the Delphi,
oracle in such words that if you put the
comma before the word "never," it mean.
one thing, and if you put the comma aftel
the word never it means another thing
just opposite, The message from the
Delphic Oracle to the General was: sec
forth, return never in battle shalt
thou perish If he was killed, that
was according to the Delphic Oracle;
II he came home safely, that was according
TO the Delphic Oracle. So the ancient augur-
les deceived the people, The priests of those
auguries, by the flight of birds, or by the in
ronation of thunder, or by the inside appear.
ance Of slain animals, told the fortunes or
mlSTortunes of individuals or nat; 0ns The
sIbyls deceived the people. The sibylS were
supposed to be inspired by women who lived
IN caves and wrote the Sibylline books after
ward purchased by Tarquin the Proud. So
late as the year 1928, a man arose in New York,
pretending to be divine being, and playing
his part so well that wealthy merchants b.
came his disciples and threw their fortunes
INTO his diScipleShip. And so in all ages,
there have been nscromancieS, lamentations,
withcrafts, sorceries, magical arts, enchant-
ments, divinationS and decisions The one
of the text was only specimen of that
which has been transpiring in all ages of the
plished any good. They deceived, they
pauperized the people, they were as cruel as
they were absurd. They opened no hospitals,
they healed no wounds, they wiped away 10
tears, they emancipated no serfdom.
But there are those who say that all these
decisions combined are as nothing COMPARED
with the delusion now abroad in the world,
the delusion of the Christian religion. That
delusion has to-day over four hundred mil
ton dupes. 1t proposes to encircle the earth
!, ~ H. l,-E,-
a delusion has already overshadowed the
Appalachian range on this side the sea, and
it has overshadowed the Balkan and eau
casian ranges on the other side of the sea. It
has conquered England and the United
States. This champion delusion, this hoax,
this swindle of the ages, as it has been called,
has gone forth to conquer the islands of the
Pacific; the Melanasia and the Micronesia
and Malayan Polynesia have already
surrendered to the delusion. Yea, it has
conquered the Ind an Archipelago, and Bor-
ueo and Sumatra and CelebeS and Java have
fallen under its wies. In the Fiji Islands,
where there are 220, 900 people, 102, 900 have
already become the dlpes of this Christian
religion, and if things go on as they are now
going on, and if the influence OF this great
halluciaatiOn of the ages cannot be stopped,
It will swallow the globe. Surprising, then
that Christianity is the delusicn of the centu-
rles, as some have pronounced it 1 propose
his morning to show you what has been &C
V.
hoax. this swindle of the ages
And In the first place, | remark, that this
delus on of the Christian religion has made
wonderful transformations of human char
acter. will go down the aisle of any church
IN JErIstendom, aud / viii find on either side
that aisle those who were once profligate
prOfane, unclean OF speech and unclean of
action, drunken and lost. But by the power
of this delusion of the Christian religion they
beer, rr1r,
they are kind and amiable and genial and
loving and useful Everybody sees the
change. Under the power OF this great hallu-
clnatIcn they have quit their former asso-
GATES, and whereas they once found their
chief delight among these who gamblad
and swOre and raced horses, now they find
their chief JOY among those who go to PRAYER
meetings and churches; so complete is the de-
lusi D. Yea, their own families have noticed
1T the wife has noticed it, the children have
noticed The money that went for rum now
gees for books and for clothes and for irca-
ton. He IS a new man. All who know him
say there has been a wonderful change
W hat is the cause of this change3 This great
hllIucination of the Christian religion There
is as much difference between what he is now
and what he once was, as between a rose ana
a nettle, as between q dove and a vulture
as between day and night Tremendous de-
lusiOnl
Admiral Farragut, one of the most ad-
mued men of the American navy, ea~ly
Derame victim of this Christian delusion,
and, seated, not long before his death, at
Long Branch, he was giving some friends an
account of his early life. He said: ''MY
father went down in behalf of the United
States Government to put an end to Aaron
Burr's rebellion. 1 was a cabin boy and
Went along with him. l could swear like an
old salt. l could gamble in every style of
gambling. knew all the wickedness there
was at that time abroad. One day my father
cleared everybody out of the cabin excef
myself, and locked the door. He said
David, what are you going to do: What
are you going to be" Well
said, father, am going to follow
the sea- Follow the seal and be poor,
miserable drunken sailor, kicked and cuffed
abont the world and die of a fever in foreign
hospitals 'Ohl no. said father, l VII
not be that; will tread the quarterback and
command, as you do No, David, my father
principles and your bad habits will never
tread the quarterback or command NV
father went out and shut the door after him
and L said then: L will change, l will never
swear again, will never drink again, will
never gamble again. and, gentlemen by The
help of God l have kept those three vows to
LhlS time. L soon after that became Cnris-
fian, and that decided my fate for time aud
eternity"
Another captive of this great Christian
tlelusion There goes Saul of Tarsus on
horseback at full gallop. Where is he go
lngl To destroy Christians He wants no
better playspell than to stand and watch the
hats and coats of the murderers who are
mastering Gods children. There goes the
same man. This time he is afo0t Where
IS he going nova Going on the read to
Ostia to die for Christ. They tried to whip
1t out of him, they tried to scare it out of
him, they thought they would give him |
enough of it by putting him into a window
less dungeon, aud keeping him on small |
diet. and denying him a cloak. and |
eondemnIng him as a crimina al, and |
bowling at him through the street: but they |
couid not freeze 1t out OF hlm, and they could /
not sweat it out of him, and they could not |
pound it out of him, so they tried the sur
gerry OF the sword and one summer dayi the /
year % he was de- apitated Perhaps the |
mghtiest intellect of the 5000 years of the /
worlds existence hood winked, cheated ca.
loled, dupe1 by the Christian religion. All! |
that is the remarkable thing about this delu- |
sion Of Christianity, it overpowers the |
strongest intellects. Gather the critics, secU- |
lar and religious, of this century together,
and put vote to them as to which is the |
a1or1ty they viii say paradise Lost |
Who wrote Paradise Lostr' One of the |
fools who believed in this Bible, John Mil |
ton. Ben amin Franklin surrendered to this |
delusion, if you may judge from the letter |
that he wrote to Thomas Paine begging him |
t? deSt no the, the a, Of ReaS2n in manu-
ing afterward, in his old days: 'Of this |
Jesus of Nazareth have to say that the svs- |
tenn of morals He let, and the religion He |
has given us are the best things the world |
has ever seen or is likely to see" |
Patrick Henry, the electric champion |
of liberty, enslaved by this delusion.
so that he says: 1.-THE book worth all other |
books put together is the Bible. BENJAMIN |
Rush, the leading Psychologist and anatom- |
Ist OF his day. the great medical scientist |
what did he say? ''The only true aud perfect |
religion is Chris ianity.n Isaac Newton, the |
leading philosopher of his tine-wbat did he /